


60 For 60 I

by flawedamythyst



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-02
Updated: 2012-09-02
Packaged: 2017-11-13 09:37:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/502075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawedamythyst/pseuds/flawedamythyst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My entries for the Sherlock60 challenge. 60 words prompted by every canon story, although a few of them are actually 100 words, and a couple of stories have 2 ficlets.</p><p>A mixed bag of Holmes/Watson, canon pairings and gen fic. The vast majority are PG-rated or lower, there's only really one explicit one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	60 For 60 I

1\. The Abbey Grange:

“It was all love on my side, and all good comradeship and friendship on hers,” said Captain Crocker. I felt a surge of affinity with him and was unable to keep myself from glancing at Holmes, despite the danger of exposing my long-held secret. To my great surprise, Holmes was already looking back, his eyes betraying his own secret.

 

2\. The Beryl Coronet:

Holmes had shut the curtains before announcing both his boredom and his proposed remedy, but it fell to me to open them again once we were both sated. I stood by the window, barely seeing the snow as I collected myself.

“Holmes,” I said at length. “You are exceptionally strong in the fingers.”

He merely laughed in reply.

 

3\. The Adventure Of Black Peter:

_"Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers."_

We were thirty minutes in the woods before I asked, “Are we looking for clues?”

Holmes looked amused. “Not at all.”

My confusion must have shown, for his amusement bubbled into a laugh.

“Perhaps I should have referenced the birds and bees earlier, not the birds and flowers. I have longed to have you under the sun.”

 

4\. The Blanched Soldier:

“Deserted me for a wife?” read Watson. “Holmes, I think I'd remember that!”

“I never said that she was _your_ wife. As I recall, she was a colonel's wife, and had consumption.”

“That is not the impression given!” protested Watson.

Holmes fixed him with a look. “It is safer for us if it is assumed that you have a wife.”

Watson looked again at the story, which featured the love between two men, and in which he was mentioned rather often for someone who was never present. “Rather than a husband?” he asked softly.

 

5\. The Blue Carbuncle:

It is not my habit to set criminals free, but Ryder had unwittingly given me the only thing I had wished for over the Christmas season – Watson's undivided attention. Knowing I only had it for a few hours more, I was loathe to waste any of it with police and explanations when I might, instead, share supper with him.

 

6\. Boscombe Valley:

I found being left behind while Holmes and Lestrade went to question James McCarthy extremely difficult. I spent the hours that I was alone trying not to agree with the thought I had seen in Holmes's eyes when he had observed my pique at the situation – that I had left him behind first by marrying, and quite deserved this.

 

7\. The Bruce-Partington Plans:

When I conceived the plan, I knew that persuading Watson would be the trickiest part. After the Milverton incident, he had sworn never to engage in house-breaking again, and although that had been several years ago, I suspected that he would hold firm to that.

When he agreed, I looked at his face and saw that it was not just his patriotism that had swayed him, but also his inability to let me go into harm's way alone. A powerful emotion passed through me, one that only Watson has ever inspired, and which I have never known how to express.

 

8\. The Cardboard Box:

The truth is that I am always striving to be in rapport with Watson. My apparent preoccupation with Lestrade's letter was merely to cover that all my attention was on how Watson's finances hung heavily on his mind, leaving him open to other dark thoughts. He needed the distraction of a case, and I could happily provide him with that.

 

9\. The Adventure Of Charles Augustus Milverton:

Agatha was reluctant to provide Holmes with all the details he needed, as if her female intuition had picked up his internal disgust at the situation. How could he push past that? 

_If I truly loved her, what would I do? If she were Watson..._ The answer was obvious. He took her hand.

“My dear, will you marry me?”

 

10\. The Copper Beeches:

“'Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interest in her',” he read. “ Watson, what interest would I have in a woman? Especially when compared to you?”

“You have been in an abominable mood for weeks,” I said. “At this point, I would find it a relief if you were to develop an interest in women.”

 

11\. The Creeping Man:

“I cannot come,” I said after Bennett had left. “Holmes, I cannot leave my practice.”

Holmes took my hands. “Chequers has more to recommend it than clean linen – it is astonishingly discrete. It has been too long since we indulged in certain activities without fear of discovery.”

I began planning for my absence without further persuasion.

 

12\. The Crooked Man:

_"I was sleepy before you came. I am quite wakeful now."_

Watching overwhelming pleasure wipe out all thought from Holmes's mind and knowing that I have caused it, whilst tasting the bitter taste of his seed flooding across my tongue, has always served to eradicate all vestiges of tiredness from my person. It is a fact that Holmes has used to his advantage on numerous occasions, and I have never complained.

 

13\. The Dancing Men:

Hilton Cubitt was mistaken to assume that I should think it mad to marry a woman after having known her barely a month. After all, I had agreed to live with Watson after barely a day's acquaintance, and knew even then that I wanted such a cohabitation to last a good long time, and I have never since regretted it.

 

14\. The Devil's Foot:

_“The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson--all else will come.”_

Holmes was not persuaded to take a holiday by any words from me, but by the failure of his own faculties. I found him crouched on the sofa one morning, wrapped up in his dressing gown and looking distraught.

“I cannot think, Watson,” he said. “My brain is all fog.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “You need a holiday,” I repeated for the hundredth time. “The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Holmes, then all else will come back.”

Hearing him repeat those words back to me a few weeks later, with an impish smile, was enough to tell me he was well on his way to recovery and fully capable of investigating the case. 

*

_Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as much yourself._

I do not love a woman, but I love a man, and if anything as monstrous as what befell Brenda Tregannis had happened to Watson, the perpetrator would have suffered horribly for longer than five minutes. I let Sterndale go without reservation, knowing that the loss of his love would torture him far more than any court-ordered punishment ever would.

 

15\. The Dying Detective:

I stayed hidden behind the Great Detective's bed for far longer than was necessary. I might have emerged from concealment at the moment that Inspector Morton arrived, but I was frozen with disbelief that someone I counted as my closest friend could abuse me in such a cruel way, followed by a burning anger I had to fight to control.

 

16\. The Empty House:

Three years is a long time to plan a revelation on the level of the one I gave Watson that day in his office. He complains of the unnecessary drama I did it with, but some of the ideas I had for it were far more sensational, and called for special effects that I did not have time to prepare.

*

I knew this story was incomplete without mention of my wife's death, but every time I set my pen down with the intention of writing the words, I found myself stilling, unable to put my sorrow down in black ink. It was only with great fortitude that I was finally able to allude to it in a rather vague manner.

 

17\. The Engineer's Thumb:

"You horrify me," I said when Hatherley mentioned a murderous attack, but the truth was I was already hoping that there was a mystery that could justify a visit to Holmes. I had not realised until I moved out just how much I enjoyed being his constant companion, or how desperately I would look for any excuse to see him.

 

18\. The Final Problem:

The note was clearly a ruse, but as I looked up to tell Watson that our most deadly challenge was close, I saw him absently turning his wedding ring while waiting for my verdict. The words died in my mouth. He was tied to his wife, not me, and it was my challenge, not his.

“You should go,” I said.

 

19\. The Five Orange Pips:

“Watson, why one earth have you written this case up? I solved this case with an Encyclopedia and a day's immersion in shipping records. It lacks a great deal of the drama and sensationalism that you delight in.”

“It has some singular features,” I said, thinking of how shaken Holmes had been by the murder of his client.

 

20\. The Gloria Scott:

I have offered Watson a great many things over the years, from cases and excitement to dinners and companionship. Giving him this part of my past, a window into how I became who I am, is a code that I hope he will one day decipher, and then realise all that I offer him that cannot be put into words.

 

21\. The Golden Pince-Nez:

Typical. A day spent waiting for Holmes to lose interest in his ancient document and turn his attention to me instead, in order to indulge in the only proper occupation for such a wet night, then Hopkins arrives, sets Holmes's brain onto a puzzle, and falls asleep, most inconveniently, on our sofa. I shall expire from frustration at this rate.

 

22\. The Greek Interpreter:

The telegram requesting I call on Mycroft weighed on my mind. Should I continue to hide Watson away for fear of my brother's judgement once he saw, in a glance, all that he meant to me, or should I bring together the two people I consider family and allow them both to see parts of me I had kept hidden?

 

23\. The Hound Of The Baskervilles

The dream came the first night Watson was away. He was laid out naked on a bed, exactly as Holmes had seen him so many times, but instead of Holmes's lips and fingers caressing all the most intimate and beautiful places on his body, it was Sir Henry Baskerville's.

Holmes made plans to travel to Dartmoor the very next day.

 

24\. A Case Of Identity

It is with great shame that I admit my first reaction to Holmes's comment that he considered me his spouse in every way that was important, was to lose my temper and then avoid him for several weeks. When I finally returned, and the matter was settled to the satisfaction of us both, I commented how peculiar our situation was.

"My dear fellow," said Holmes, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

 

25\. The Illustrious Client

I am not a suspicious man by nature, but association with Sherlock Holmes has given me cause to be so on more than one occasion. Thus, the first thing I did once I had rushed to his sick room was to examine his wounds closely in order to make sure that they were real, and as bad as he claimed.

*

I must confess that I did consider deceiving Watson as to the severity of my injuries, but the painful memory of his hurt reaction to the incident with Mr. Culverton Smith kept me from doing so. His honest relief every morning as he found me better than reported in the newspapers assured me that I had made the right decision.

 

26\. The Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax

I had been feeling old and aching, but after a week or two rushing around the French countryside and another tracking the missing woman around London, I felt every inch the dangerous ruffian Holmes declared me to be to Holy Peters. Let him just try and bar our way to rescue Lady Frances Carfax, and he would feel my stick!

 

27\. His Last Bow

Two years of mangling my native language took several weeks to put completely behind me, but there were benefits. I am not sure which amused me more: the startled look on my brother's face when I asked for his glad hand, or Watson's collapse into laughter at my automatic exclamation of 'darn it' after dropping a book on my foot.

 

28\. The Lion's Mane

Standing by the pool where McPherson met his death, the frustration of knowing that I was missing something burnt through me. Two things, I should say – one fact, hovering just out of reach, and one Watson to whom I could have laid out the data in order to sound out a solution, missing from his place at my side.

 

29\. The Mazarin Stone

I would not usually have allowed being addressed as 'Holmes' in that overly-condescending tone by such a man as the Count to trouble me, but it had been too long since I had seen my Watson and heard his more pleasant voice call me the same. I did not wish the memory of it to be drowned out so quickly.

 

30\. The Missing Three-Quarter

Watching Staunton sob out his grief took my mind to another scene, when I had been the husband overcome at the foot of a bed on which lay his beloved. I must confess that the vision quite undid me, and I heard nothing of Holmes and Armstrong's conversation until Holmes put his hand on my shoulder and led me outside.

 

31\. The Musgrave Ritual

Whilst at university, I had always thought Musgrave rather dull and lacking in the natural curiosity that I find essential in those I associate with. When I discovered that neither he, nor any of his ancestors, had bothered to investigate what was obviously a set of coded instructions, I gave up on him entirely. I have no time for idiots.

 

32\. The Naval Treaty

Watson claims that my comments about the rose were a new phase of my character, which is likely true. The mood I found myself in as we embarked on that case was as new to me as Watson's words the night before had been. I was no longer merely Sherlock Holmes; I was Sherlock Holmes as loved by John Watson.

 

33\. The Noble Bachelor

Watson becomes extremely disheartened when the combination of his old war wound and the weather keeps him trapped indoors. The best way I know to alleviate his distress is to keep him distracted and entertained. Perhaps a supper party will cheer him, with the kind of excellent food that he always appreciates, and the most interesting guests I can summon.

 

34\. The Norwood Builder

“Why are you so set that I should resume recording your cases, Holmes? You have made your opinions on my stories very clear over the years.”

“My time away has managed to completely change my mind on that score, my dear Watson. When times were hardest, they were the perfect reminder of what I was working to regain.”

 

35\. The Priory School

“A poor man?” I repeated as we left Holdernesse Hall. “Holmes, we both know that your situation is comfortable and every case you take makes you increasingly so.”

“But I shall not always be taking cases,” replied Holmes. “This will go towards funding my retirement.” He paused. “Or, if you wish it, our joint retirement.”

 

36\. The Red Circle

_"Why, Watson, even your modest moustache would have been singed."_

I should like it on the record that there is nothing modest about my moustache. Certainly there are men with more plentiful hair upon their lip, but I have always held that sort of over-abundance as rather vulgar. My moustache has precisely the right level of fullness, and you may disregard all that Holmes has to say on the matter.

 

37\. The Red-Headed League

That Watson's visit to Baker Street was to avoid matrimonial strife was obvious both from the bitterness with which he said, “My practice is never very absorbing,” and his reluctance to return home after the concert. Accordingly, once the case was wrapped up, I took him home, plied him with brandy, and gave him the opportunity to unburden himself.

38\. The Reigate Squires

“Watson, I have no wish to go to the country to be fussed over by female servants and restrained by social mores from being close to you.”

“You misunderstand, Holmes. The Colonel runs an extremely discreet bachelor household. There will be no problem if we choose to spend whole days in bed together.”

“When is the train?”

 

39\. The Resident Patient

I first realised the trouble Watson was going to cause me not when the flick of his tongue as he turned a page with a licked finger caused me to drop a test tube and lose a whole day's work, but when three hours walking with him passed like ten minutes and was well worth the loss of my research.

 

40\. The Retired Colourman

There was a time when Holmes's compliments to my physical appearance made me protest the inaccuracy of such statements, until the day he chastised me for it. 

“Watson, I am one of the most observant men in London and you know I never indulge in false flattery. If I say you are extremely handsome, then it is undoubtedly true.”

 

41\. A Scandal In Bohemia

When I read Doctor Watson's account, I didn't know whether to be flattered or amused. _In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex._ That I had such an effect on a man like Sherlock Holmes! Especially as I had largely forgotten the incident in the excitement of starting my new life as a married woman.

I showed Godfrey.

“Should I duel him for your heart?” he joked.

 

42\. The Second Stain

“Yet another story where you have wasted words on the beauty of a lady, when those same words would have been better used describing my methods. And you wonder why I dislike you writing them.”

“If I were to write about the beauty I was chiefly concerned with, I should be arrested, Holmes. Besides, she was very pretty.”

 

43\. Shoscombe Old Place

I did not mention in the official narrative that I also laid a great deal of money on Shoscombe Prince and won more than enough to treat Holmes to a real holiday, one on the continent without the trial of pretending to care for fishing. Indeed, we spent our time with far more engaging pursuits, and barely left our room.

 

44\. The Sign Of Four

It seems an odd truth that talking with Watson who, despite his many great qualities, is not the keenest intellect nor the most cunning conversationalist, should occupy my brain almost as satisfactorily as a puzzle, thereby rendering a second shot of cocaine unnecessary. I hint towards that, hoping that he will always remain beside me, distracting me from my demons.

 

45\. The Silver Blaze

Decisions made before breakfast are rarely good ones. I should have remembered that as I lead Silver Blaze across the moor in the dawn's light, and kept towards King's Pyland rather than letting the devil turn my feet. I have nerves as strong as any man, but I would not repeat the terror of the last few days for anything.

 

46\. The Six Napoleons

One might think that having a Scotland Yard inspector as a regular visitor would put us in danger, given our frequent and enthusiastic breaking of the Offences Against The Person Act, but Holmes and his put-upon assistant are now so familiar that the Yard would hardly notice if we were to engage in sordid acts on the desk of the Chief Inspector. Holmes takes great delight in indulging in these roles, ordering me about as if I am nothing more than a servant. I comply without comment; we both know who will be obeying whom once our door is locked.

 

47\. The Solitary Cyclist

_“Even if she couldn't love me it was a great deal to me just to see her dainty form about the house, and to hear the sound of her voice."_

_"Well," said I, "you call that love, Mr. Carruthers, but I should call it selfishness."_

Watson's form is not dainty, but I still empathised. There is inescapable danger in living at Baker Street and accompanying me on cases, not to mention that it keeps him from a conventional life. Selfishness, Watson called it, and I knew then that he had no idea what it was to love so completely, and yet with so little hope.

 

48\. The Speckled Band

_"Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you to-night. There is a distinct element of danger."_

We have had many similar conversations over the years. That there is danger in helping Holmes with his work comes as no surprise to me, and I have never understood why he should think it necessary to warn me, or protect me from it. I was a soldier, after all, and I flatter myself that I have never lacked courage.

 

49\. The Stock-broker's Clerk

_For three months after taking over the practice I was kept very closely at work, and saw little of my friend Sherlock Holmes, for I was too busy to visit Baker Street, and he seldom went anywhere himself save upon professional business._

I kept away from Watson as long as I could. I told myself it was better that he was safe from both the danger of my cases and the risk of discovering the dark secret of my affections. Temptation gnawed at me, however, and eventually I succumbed. Still, what danger can there be from a case revolving around a clerk?

 

50\. A Study In Scarlet

John Watson—his limits.

1\. Biology & Anatomy. - Extensive, especially in regards to medicine.  
2\. Other Sciences. - Average. Tendency towards useless trivia such as planetary motion.  
3\. Crime. - Feeble, but developing. Shows a keen interest.  
4\. Literature. - Mainly action novels. Wishes to inflict his own writing on the population.  
5\. Philosophy. - Despite experiences in war, persists in believing in the goodness of humanity. Curious.  
6\. Is an excellent shot and a handy brawler.  
7\. Has the grand gift of silence. Invaluable as a companion.  
8\. Uncommonly handsome.

This list fails to accurately portray Watson. Begin to suspect I will never get his limits.

 

51\. The Sussex Vampire

 _No ghosts need apply_ , he said in jest so many years ago. Now I stand in the dark outside his cottage, watching as he trails his fingers over the writing I was doing as my heart failed, and wish that he was less rational and more open to the other side, so that I might yet communicate with him.

 

52\. Thor Bridge

As I watched my revolver go disappearing over the parapet of the bridge, I realised that Holmes was right. I really can be incurably slow at times. How else would you explain my failure to learn the most basic lesson of our friendship? Never lend Sherlock Holmes anything without expecting to see it lost, damaged or destroyed in some way.

 

53\. The Three Gables

A man as full of vitality as Douglas Maberley brought down by that fiend of a woman, and no way for justice to be served. Watson thinks my opinion of females to be too harsh, but this case is evidence enough that romance is a dangerous risk not worth taking. Bachelorhood suits me (and my Watson, of course) far better.

 

54\. The Three Garridebs

Watson has remarked more than once upon my ability to remain cool when faced with threats of violence. It is not bravery, for I have never felt much fear of injury to my own person. Seeing Watson hurt is a quite different thing, however, and my desperation then revealed just how poor I am at remaining cool when truly afraid.

 

55\. The Three Students

_Not one of your cases, Watson — mental, not physical. All right; come if you want to._

It had been two long weeks of Watson being wordlessly bored and frustrated by my immersion in my studies, otherwise I would have sent Soames away unsatisfied. However, I have long been powerless to deny that look of enthusiasm on Watson's face, although I do enjoy teasing him that I might leave him behind – as if I ever would!

 

56\. The Man with The Twisted Lip

Watson underestimates himself. It is not just his wife to whom those in distress are drawn – Watson himself is a great help in times of need. That is why I was so pleased to have him with me on this case, not just to help, but in case I should have to deliver bad news to Mrs. St. Clair.

 

57\. The Valley Of Fear

I have often declared myself an idiot once an obvious solution to a mystery has revealed itself, but I have never meant it more than I did in Birlstone, when I half-woke Watson and recognised his expression of unguarded affection at the sight of me. How could I have missed that he feels for me as I feel for him?

 

58\. The Veiled Lodger

Mr. Arthur Hewlett, M.P. for Great Yarmouth, crumpled the pages of The Strand in his fists and snarled. How dare a jumped-up old pensioner like Doctor Watson dare threaten him in so public a manner? He looked at the cormorant sat on a perch by the window, looking out to sea.

“We'll get those papers yet, Cormoran,” he vowed.

 

59\. Wisteria Lodge

It was not only Holmes's reputation that led me to his door, but also the rumours I'd heard about Watson amongst my acquaintances. Even if Holmes could read a man's secrets as easily as they said, he would not expose the real reason I became so quickly intimate with Garcia when my hidden vice was the same as his companion's.

 

60\. The Yellow Face

I was sorely frustrated to have missed a potential client, so much so that I almost told Watson that I would never again waste my time on such pointless trivialities as afternoon walks. One look at his sun-warmed face, which still reflected the intimate communion we had held between us on our perambulation, and the words died in my throat.


End file.
